Malaysian Media Council Bill: A journalist’s take

Having been in the media industry since my late twenties, the passing of the Malaysian Media Council (MMC) Bill yesterday is somewhat a welcome.

Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching’s assurance that the two government representative were actually from the Finance Ministry were meant to ensure funding for the first several years is also assuring.

Once the MMC is financially strong in the next several years, the Finance Ministry representative’s presence would not be needed.

This would mean that the MMC would be independent from the government of the day too.

It would also be interesting to see how the government would hand over the powers that it currently holds to the MMC.

For instance, the issuance of the media accreditation card is currently done by the Information Department.

Having followed the debate yesterday, I found that the arguments put forth by Perikatan Nasional lawmakers somewhat distasteful as they did not truly understand the definition of a media personnel and journalist.

Case in point: Datuk Seri Shahidan Kasim (PN-Arau) suggested that TikTok account holders be included in the MMC.

Seriously, media practitioners and social media users are world’s apart. To equate them alike is a cardinal sin.